Nearly 800 million light-years away,
something has been forming.
Scientists aren't exactly sure what it is
but have dubbed it 'the black neutron star.'
And now, it's headed for Earth.
What is a black neutron star, exactly?
Well, scientists aren't entirely sure just yet,
but they do have some theories.
It all has to do with this mass gap that's found in space.
When a star dies,
two things can happen.
If the star is more than five times the mass of the Sun,
it becomes a black hole.
And if it's under 2.5 times the mass of our Sun,
it becomes a neutron star.
But what exactly happens when a star is
too small to become a black hole,
and too big to become a neutron star?
That's where our new space object comes in.
Scientists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
and the European Virgo detector
have discovered an object
2.6 times the mass of our Sun.
Scientists think there's a chance this object is
either the heaviest neutron star ever,
or the smallest black hole.
Regardless of what it might be,
scientists also discovered that
this mysterious space object
merged with a black hole of 23 solar masses.
This happened 800 million light-years away,
but the gravitational waves that it created
were detected here on Earth.
This could have created
the most massive black hole to ever exist.
But let's say this object, which is
2.6 times the mass of our Sun,
didn't merge with a black hole.
Instead, it came toward our Solar System?
What would happen then?
As the black neutron came on the scene,
gravitational disturbances would disrupt
nearly every object within the Solar System.
All planets, comets, asteroids,
and everything else in space would be thrown into chaos.
There's a good chance that this would throw Earth
out of the habitable zone.
Our planet could end up wandering in the far corners of space.
And with the planet being so far from the Sun,
Earth's temperature would drop significantly.
Luckily, this wouldn't happen right away,
due to all the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
But soon enough,
Earth would become a frozen wasteland.
And since we're not entirely sure what this object is,
the results could be very different.
If the black neutron star were a kind of magnetar,
then we would experience intense solar flares as well.
A magnetar can release as much energy
as our Sun has emitted in 100,000 years,
in less than one second.
As Earth is completely frozen,
it would then be quickly heated up
as the black neutron star gets closer,
vaporizing nearly everything on the planet.
Not to mention, it would also cause tidal heating.
The strong gravitational pull
coming from this massive space object
would deform Earth by heating our planet's core.
This would also give rise to massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
And what if the black neutron star were just
a really small black hole?
Well, the results of it entering our Solar System
wouldn't be any less destructive.
The black hole would slowly suck up
everything in our Solar System.
It would grow larger and larger,
making its way toward Earth.
And once it gets to us,
its enormous tidal force would pull Earth apart.
And there's nothing we could do to stop it.
There's also a chance that this black neutron star
could be a regular neutron star that then becomes a black hole.
This would result in Earth being
quickly destroyed by all those consequences from before.
And of course, we'd all die.
So yeah, sorry
we killed you a bunch in this one.
But it just goes to show that
we definitely wouldn't want those objects coming
anywhere near us.
But what if,
instead of a black neutron star entering our Solar System,
just a spoonful of neutron star
suddenly appeared on Earth?
Well, we'll leave that story for another WHAT IF.